Oh what a night……

Ok, this was early February in 2012, but still it was a very special time for a lot of area basketball teams because some teams and coaches will be left wondering if the earth has officially spun off its axis after some of the results tonight.

The list is long, but here are some of the finals worth mentioning:

CLASS AA

Big 10 – How about Maginn over CBA? Sports writers and fans are out in masse this week talking about a playoff between CBA and Troy and BAM, just like that Maginn rolls onto Airline Drive and takes down the mighty Brothers showing that they may be ready to make another late run to respectability and also proving that games are won on paper and it ‘aint over until the lady with the oversized hips starts to sing and believe me folks, she is just getting warmed up. This new development gives the Big 10 #1 seed to Troy on the very last day of the season and now makes things really interesting come sectional time. The question is, was this a fluke or is there a bona fide weak spot in the CBA armor? Another question is, was there a lingering basketball hangover after the huge and emotional win over the Horses on Tuesday? Those questions will be answered in the sectionals but one thing is looking like it is coming into focus and that is that CBA is now the #2 seed and will end up with Guilderland and Shenendehowa on their side of the draw, while Troy, Shaker and LSI now anchor the other side of the draw. At first glance, CBA may have slightly benefited from this loss. Do you agree?

Suburban – With the Suburban points system in effect, Guilderland can now control its own destiny going into Tuesday’s game with Colonie. If they take down the Raiders, they will get the #1 seed thanks to their wins over Shaker and Shen (2-point wins) in the crossovers. That should put Shaker into the #2 spot by points and then Shenendehowa thanks to their marginal crossover record into 3rd, Bethlehem 4th and Columbia 5th in Class AA. As the smoke clears, this would make the bracket look potentially like this:

There wasn’t any major movement in the Class A seedings tonight but clearly Lansingburgh has a monumental opportunity in their upcoming Colonial Council Championship to show the area that they deserve major respect in the seeding meeting. If the season ended with a ‘Burgh win over ‘Vliet, here is how I see the seeds going:

1. Glens Falls vs. BYE

8. Queensbury vs. 9. Burnt Hills

4. Mohonasen vs. 13. South Glens Falls

5. Gloversville vs. 12. Amsterdam

3. Lansingburgh vs. 14. Hudson Falls

6. Scotia vs. 11. Averill Park

2. Green Tech vs. BYE

7. NDBG vs. 10. Johnstown

CLASS B

Stillwater takes down Schuylerville to grab a potential Class B #3 seed. Last night, Cohoes got slammed by Mechanicville to drop them down as will Schuylerville. In the Patroon, one of the teams will grab the #3 or #4 and who knows who it will be as Chatham takes down Catskill to make things very interesting in the Patroon and Taconic Hills takes care of Rensselaer to make their case for a quality seed. With Cairo’s win over Mekeel from Wednesday night, who deserves the top Patroon B seed? I will do a Class B bubble breakdown over the weekend.

CLASS C

Hoosick Falls, Lake George, Mechanicville and Greenwich all look to be distancing themselves from the competition for a top seed, but what about Fort Plain? With tonight’s win over Sharon Springs in the WAC Semifinals, have they done enough to grab a top spot? If they take down Mekeel, I say definitely. If not, I believe they will either take the #4 or #5 spot now that they have emerged at 13-4 with one of the best records in the C’s and a few quality wins (Waterford, Canjo, Sharon Springs) under their belt. The rest of the C will be tough to seed.

CLASS D

Sharon Springs’ loss to nearby Fort Plain will sting come seeding time as they were hoping for a big WAC playoff run to secure the #2 seed. I think Fort Ann gets it now, but it won’t matter much. They have done enough to avoid Argyle until the finals and that is all they were looking for. I hope the committee does not drop them to 4. If they don’t, in the potential 4/5 matchup, look for the committee to put Loudonville Christian and Germantown in an intriguing quarterfinal rematch.

Eric Medved

26 Responses

Soooooo Happy for Maginn and Coach Gilooly!!! Great Win! Their kids have talent and heart and Coach Gilooly is giving this team great direction. Rich can develop players and knows x’s and o’s and you can see this team improving as the season goes on. As the lone Catholic HS in Albany, Maginn can always have players. Sounds like a recipe to get them back on top.

Still shocked after the game last night. Sat among the CBA parents and we were all shell shocked. Credit Maginn for a solid gameplan and game play. This wasn’t the Troy loss where CBA led the whole way and then a tough shot beat them at the end. Maginn controlled the game from start to finish, held off a rally and made plays throughout. Incredible turnaround from the first game as Maginn flipped a 30 loss around and really handled the game.
They led almost the whole game and at one point had the lead by 17 points. CBA looked at different points like they didn’t know what to do. Maginn played a very extended 2-3 with a very good man to man and an aggressive press and it caused the Brothers many problems. If not for offensive rebounds, CBA’s night would have been over very early.
I have been at many CBA games over the last few years and haven’t seen them over matched like this at all.
CBA seemed confused by Maginn’s press and half court defense. Without the rally in the last 3 minutes CBA wouldn’t have gotten out of the 40’s.
Don’t know much about Maginn’s coach but after watching him last night he should be in the conversation with Doemel, Hurley, et all on this board and the team could be really strong in sectionals. Very impressive game from Maginn.

I seen CBA and Bishop Maginn game last night, congrats to BM players for an energetic effort and a well coached game by BM coach. Now for CBA, senior night should be celebrated against an easy opponent when you want to start seniors from the bench. Anyways, a bad shooting night against a good team with a hot shooting night results in a possible loss. Glad this was not a sectional game.

Wow, with the way the seedings are starting to take form it looks like that #1 spot in the Suburban is like Gold. No word on the Guilderland-AP score last night. Looks like Guilderland is in the drivers seat but Colonie has been pesky. We’ll see if they close it out. Shaker seems assured the #2. Shen has to be kicking themselves for that 1 point loss to Colonie earlier in the year. That two point game could have cost them the #1 seed. Interesting to see what happens and if Spa even goes but I like the matchups already. Maginn at Bethlehem is a bad draw for the Eagles. Maginn could also be a tough 2nd round matchup for Troy. That side of the bracket would be loaded.

Albany and Columbia could be interesting on the other side and ‘Toga may be a heckuva tough bottom seed the way they are playing of late. With your projection though the Suburban 1 has by far the easiest road IMO. Anyway, I think I said it a month ago too, I agree 100% that the Big 10 #2 is probably the easier road so CBA may have made out better in the long run. I’d rather go through Shen and Guilderland to the Finals than Maginn and Shaker/La Salle. I don’t think it’s even close. Almost makes me want to go back to the old conversation of just seeding the best top to bottom like every other class and forgetting the crossovers.

You could flip flop the seedings for SG vs AMS and NDBG vs SGF. but they wont matchup 2 opponents from the same league. Like i said before i think you have Lansingburgh highly overrated at #3(i don’t see them beating ‘Vliet. I think you should have Scotia seeded higher than Gloversville due to g’ville’s poor non-league performance.

Looks like Maginn will be the #4 seed and Albny #5 on Big 10 side. They are both 8-7 now, but Maginn plays CCHS and Albany plays Troy. If favorites win, Maginn will be 9-7 and Albany 8-8. Maginn would then be home v Columbia and Albany would go to Bethlehem.

@ballislife35. i know they did but they got blown out by Green Tech, lost to amsterdam and columbia prep(not sure how good they are since they’re outside of section 2) struggled with a couple teams in the foothills that they shouldn’t have(2 games against SGF and 2 games with johnstown). not a great resume. plus they’ll likely lose 2nd place in the foothills after they lose to GF. I just can’t see Gloversville ahead of Mohon, Scotia, or NDBG. They’ll be a solid #6 seed. i’ll be highly surprised if Lansingburgh goes ahead of any of the top 3 foothills teams or Mohon, NDBG or Green Tech.

CCFan: Voorheesville deserved a home game before after beating BKW and then playing well in the Colonial despite having a low enrollment. With a win right before sectionals against arguably the 2nd or 3rd best C team, Voorheesville has to have just played itself into a home game. Burgh needs to win this game to guarantee themselves one so that game will be huge. In terms of the home seeds after this game and Fort Plain’s win last night I would say HF gets the 1, LG the 2, Mech the 3, Greenwich the 4, Fort Plain gets the 5, Waterford a 6, Voorheesville 7 and Rensselaer 8.

So the suburban council points system is only used for sectional seedings and has nothing to do with the standings within the suburban?The winner of a division within the suburban is based on # of wins and then if 2 teams are tied, it goes to head to head matchups? Or are two teams with the same record just considered tied in the suburban?

Head to head does not come into play at all in the Suburban. It’s based on record alone and a tie is a shared title. The points system often seeds teams outside of their records. With a win Guilderland will take the 1 seed even though they could have the third best record in the league and lost twice to Bethlehem. Right now it’s Guilderland, Shaker, Shen. If any of those teams lose in that order the others can leapfrog (Shen can be #1 only if both Guilderland and Shaker lose, Shaker #1 if they win and Guilderland loses, for example). A couple of interesting games for those three teams on Tuesday could mix things up.

Thanks baller…..odd system. Doesn’t seem to make much sense…seems the team with the best record should get the highest seed. Also weird because there are class A schools in the suburban that have nothing to do with the seedings. Weird system,… but thanks for the clarification.

Why would teams like Hudson Falls and South Glens Falls want to send a team to a sectional game? Basketball should adopt a policy where each team should earn their way into a sectional bracket. What is the benefit of a team like Mohan. beating SGF by 40?

Well Gville beat J’town twice! and Amsterdam beat Gville by double digits, at their place! So one could say, how is J’town ahead of Amsterdam? They played smaller schools, even C’s!! And they are crumbling apart as of late. Burgh ahead of Mohon? Are you kiddin’ me? They play B’s and C’s…and Mohon played in the Suburban!! There’s no way Burgh is a 3 seed… I think NDBG and GF are the top 2…Green Tech will not be able to handle the pressure and word on the street is that they can’t play outside the lane..so we’ll see.

Part dos….big shakeups tonight for both the AA and A races and seedlings. The AA seedlings didn’t change much but Class A BHBL taking down Shen left Shaker standing alone atop the Suburban at 13-3. They’ll take the 2 seed behind Guilderland due to points but Shen really punted one away tonight. Good win for BHBL who should have beat Shen in game 1 and this certainly will help their seeding. Could be a dangerous mid-seed.

Then you have Class A NDBG with a HUGE win over La Salle. This should also catapult their seeding and assure them a first round home game as La Salle had no blemishes outsied

Congratulations to Shaker for winning the Suburban Council Title! Coach Holmes has done a great job and having Casey Hall back has been awesome. But, credit the players who have been fighting all season long. This was truly a team effort, there is no ‘I’ in team.

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